Malorie Blackman, the children's laureate 2013-2015, recommends reading as a prime support for becoming a writer.

She is also, not surprisingly, an advocate of writing groups: " When I first started writing, I found joining a supportive writing group invaluable."

Malorie's recommendations for writers include finding your own voice through writing regularly - a practice endorsed in different ways by all NWP groups:

Develop your own style. Don’t copy anyone else’s. Your own voice is individual and unique so don’t be afraid to use it.

Try to get into the habit of writing every day. Keeping a diary is an excellent way of doing this.

Write from the heart as well as the head. Write about what makes you angry, what moves you to tears, the things about which you feel passionately. If you feel it when you write, others will feel it when they read.

In James Carter's 'Creating Writers' (2001), he quotes Malorie's writing strategy for over-coming procrastination or over-planning:

"When you sit down to write, don't think too hard about it. If I think too hard about what I'm going to write, I get really stuck. When I just sit down and do it, even if I eventually chuck away ninety-nine per cent, at least I've got something to work on. If you get to a difficult bit, just do it - you just write through it. There have been times when I've written a whole chapter and later I've deleted all of it and only kept a page, but at least I know where I want to go once I've done that."

I was recently delighted to find the following, posted online by a member of the Nottingham NWP group, which explores 'discovery' writing in an original and illuminating way. (This is another example of the writing metaphors exercise - Number 3 in 'slightly longer exercises' - and see also earlier blogs)

Writing is like a tiny plastic red car. It has wheels that are a bit stiff, you can push it along and it goes, reluctantly, where you want it to go. There’s no steering wheel, no delicate system of hydraulics that allows you to point it towards your goal with the merest touch of your hand. Steering is achieved by brute force. You really have to push.

Then you discover that if you do something counter-intuitive, say, like holding it down and dragging it backwards, it builds up a momentum all of its own, and you can simply let it go and try to keep up. It might not go where you think it will, it might go round in circles for a while and then shoot off in a totally unexpected direction, but that’s what brings a smile to your face.

You don’t know what happens inside the tiny plastic red car. There’s some mechanism that stores the energy gained from going backwards and releases it in a forwards direction. Someone, somewhere, designed that mechanism. Someone else put it together. You, all you can do, is pull back, then let go, and see what happens.

(To see this writing in context go to http://battypip.wordpress.com/)Alongside directed exploration of reading and the effects of language structures, NWP teachers provide pupils with writing notebooks in which they are free to jot down observations, try out ideas, and have go - and find their own voices. The result? Fewer 'reluctant' writers, more fluent and original writing.

According to whatuni.com, there are now 102 degree courses in creative writing in UK universities. This compares to about 3 in 1974, 40 years ago. What other subject has grown at this rate?

And it's worth asking, 'Why?'

Might it have something to do with the need to find your own voice in an increasingly regulated world? Might it be some irrepressible creative force - or merely a wish to alter the course of predominantly critical English studies?

Wellcome Collection: London NWP

Whatever the reason, our teachers' writing project also continues to grow: 28 groups in 4 and half years. On the 18th of January 2014, a new NWP teachers' writing group started in Halifax, and on Saturday 8 Feb 2014, English teachers gathered in Hull to participate in a morning on writing and start another NWP group there. Further groups are poised to start in north Wales, Lincolnshire and Somerset (weather permitting).

Stratford NWP workshop: June 2013

Simultaneously, this academic year, AQA launched its A level in Creative Writing, for examination in 2015. Schools are finally re-organising to feed children hungry for this university experience. As a result, NWP directors have been asked to lead courses on developing confidence in teaching creative writing.

Teachers' feedback has been enthusiastic:

'Inspirational ... reawakened my confidence/enthusiasm for writing ... I have written 2 short stories and a poem today ... It was enjoyable to be allowed to return to my creative roots ... so many ideas to use in class ...'

Teachers who feel the need to express themselves in writing, increasingly recognise the invigorating and restorative powers of collective, creative action - quite apart from the very practical improvements this can lead to in their own classrooms. Of course, it is easy for teachers to feel over-whelmed by current pressures, but it is vital to the well-being of education that teachers' creativity should not be flattened under the philistine rollers of management or the heavy-handed inspection system. NWP provides the free opportunity for all teachers to re-tune to a process which will empower them, as well as their pupils and students.

Student teachers at NWP Brunel 2013

As mentioned in previous blog entries, the call from Ofsted itself, in its 2013 schools report, is for greater creativity and independence in writing.

But how genuine is this? And who is really pulling the strings? More often than not, it seems, inspections - the backwash of second-guessing and the dislocating aftermath - are punitive rather than creative experiences.

Teachers at Bristol NWP 2013

And how odd, if more creativity is sought, that we should now be facing the prospect of new SAT tests at 7 and 14 with all the consequent narrowing of the curriculum. And this is further to the current stipulation that, in KS2 writing tests, originality, thoughtfulness or interest cannot be rewarded in the mark scheme! This represents a complete misunderstanding of meaning-making - the total destruction of context and a crazy splintering of language into measurable bits. Some might see this as an act of wanton vandalism by powers bent on denying their own people the right to tell their own story and develop their own language to do so.

Teachers at London NWP 2013

Whatever your opinion, English education in England seems to be in a shameful muddle which maybe only time will resolve. However, while bureaucrats and politicians are too unwilling or compromised to help, teachers, though of limited force individually, can collectively accelerate the process of reform.